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Our creek is running fast, after the recent torrential rain in SE Queensland, Australia.

Sunday challenge... Create a better environment

Research shows overseas rivers are the main culprits for plastic pollution
WE THINK if we ditch our plastic bags and switch to cotton ones, we're helping the planet. Scientific research says otherwise.
Stephanie Bedo JULY 3, 2018 2:10PM
news.com.au

SHOPPERS are struggling to see how stopping their use of plastic bags is going to make a difference — and it’s even harder when there are studies to support that view.
One of those studies shows that plastic debris is primarily carried into the sea by large rivers — and the top 10 worst culprits aren’t in Australia.
With debate raging amid the cessation of free, single-use plastic bags at major supermarkets Coles and Woolworths, researchers are also working to quantify the environmental impact of plastic.
Researchers in Germany said in order to take practical measures to reduce plastic input, it was necessary to answer these initial questions: “Where does all the plastic come from anyhow? And how does it get into the sea?”
In October, Dr Christian Schmidt and his team at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) addressed these questions and found that the 10 river systems with the highest plastic loads — eight of them in Asia and two in Africa — in some cases were responsible for about 90 per cent of the global input of plastic into the sea.
In these countries, the problem often is the plastic is not disposed of properly in the respective river catchment area.

www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/research-shows-overseas-rivers-are-the-main-culprits-for-plastic-pollution/news-story/23df6c946534acf9dd754132989603eb